Sunday, January 8, 2017

January Month Importance in Dalit History

January
the first month of year in Christian
Era has
stored many memories of the Dalit History. The following are a few such
memorable days of January which carry special significance for Dalits.

12-01-1598
Jijabai Jyanti

Revered Jijabai
was the worthy mother of Shiva Ji the
Great , founder of theMaratha
Empire.
Jijabai was born on January 12, 1598 as the daughter of Lakhojirao Jadhav of
Deulgaon near Sindkhed in present-dayBuldhanadistrict ofMaharashtraState. Her mother's
name was Mhalsabai. As per the customs of that age, Jijabai was married at an
early age toShahaji Raje Bhonsle,
son of Maloji Bhonsle of Verul village, a military commander serving under theAdil Shahisultans ofBijapur Sultanatein present-dayKarnataka.
The wedding was held inSindkhedon 5 Nov 1605, when
Jijabai was eight years old; her husband was hardly twelve years old, and she
was his first wife. As per custom, Jijabai remained with her parents for
several years before joining her husband. Jijabai bore Shahaji as many as eight
children, six daughters and two sons. All the daughters died in infancy and
only the two sons, Sambhaji andShivaji,
reached adulthood. In 1630, three years after Shivaji's birth, Shahaji
re-married withTukabai, daughter of
Sardar Bajirao Mohite Pongwadikar of Bijapur, who was Shahaji's close friend
and, like him, also a commander serving the sultan of Bijapur. Jijabai was a
very pious and intelligent woman with great vision for independent kingdom. She
inspired Shivaji by telling stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Balaraja.
Inspired by her, Shivaji took the Oath of Independence (SWARAJYA) in the fort
temple of lordRaireshwarin 1645 when he was
17. In Shivaji's impeccable, spotless character and courage, Jijabai's
contribution is enormous. She died soon after coronation of Shivaji on June 17,
1674. Shivaji was heartbroken by her death.

1-1-1818 Bhima Koregaon Vijay Divas

This battle took place on January 1st, 1818,
near the banks of Bhima River in Koregaon (north-west of Pune) between few
hundred(just 500 of them) Mahar soldiers
from the British regiment of a Bombay Native Light Infantry and the Peshwa army
that constituted 20,000 horsemen and 8,000 infantry soldiers. After marching
down for more than 27 miles, from Shirur to Bhima Koregaon without food and
water, the untouchable warriors fought the Peshwas army for next 12 hours and
by the end of the day defeated them completely. It was an attempt by the
untouchables of Maharashtra to break the shackles of the age-old caste order. The saga of the bravery of Mahar soldiers was
commemorated by the British in 1851, when they erected a Pillar (Vijay Stambh)
at Koregaon inscribing the names of 22 Mahar soldiers who were martyred in this
battle. The pillar still stands today reminding all of us about the bravery of
our forefathers and as an inspiration for our struggle against caste-system.
Baba Saheb Dr.B.R.Ambedkar used to visit Koregaon every year on 1st January to
pay homage to the untouchable soldiers and to exhort Dalits to show similar
courage and determination to end Brahminism from the entire country. On 1st
January, 1927, he organised a big convention in Koregaon and brought the
memories of bravery of the untouchable soldiers in public knowledge. Baba Saheb was against Brahminical thinking
based on the division of labourers in the disguise of division of labour.

3-1-1831 Revolutionary Mata Savitribai Phuley the first woman teacher in Indiawas born on this day.

She broke the age old
practice of denying education to womenfolk by Brahminical thought. Under the guidance of her husband she took to
teaching and so opened on 1st January 1848 first ever school for
girls in Pune facing orthodox Hindu ordeal.They opened 18 schools some co education. They also opened first
ever orphanage to help sexually exploited
widows and cared their illegitimate children. She passed

14-01-1886 Mangu
Ram, Magowalia known popularly as Babu Mangu Ram Chaudhry, was born in Muggowal, Hoshiarpur district. An Indian
Dalit freedom fighter and politician
from Punjab was associated with the Ghadar Party. He was founder of the Adi Dharma Samaj.

29-01-,
1904 Shri J.N.Mandal was born He was First Law
and Labour Minister of Pakistan.He
presided briefly the constitution Drafting Committee of Pakistan. He single
handily got Elected Dr. Ambedkar from Bengal with the support of Scheduled
Caste and Muslim members. There after
Dr. Ambedkar became a member of Constituent Assembly of India.
Subsequently Dr. Ambedkar was selected as the chairman of the Constitution
Drafting Committee, thanks to the vision of Shri J.N. Mandal.

6-01-1904 Hardas Laxmanrao
Nagrale (6th January 1904– 12th January 1939), popularly known as Babu
L.N.Hardas.wasa Dalit leader and social reformer in
India. He was an ardent follower of Dr. Ambedkar and was pioneer of the
practice of exchanging the greetingJai
Bhimamongst the Dalits. He
was also a prominent labour leader in the Central Province and was the general
secretary of the Independent Labour Party in the province.

5-1-1905 Dr.Bhadant Anand
Koshalayan Jyanti

Dr. Bhadant Anand Kausalyayanwas a Buddhist monk, Scholar, Traveller and a
prolific writer from India. He is considered as one of the great activists ofBuddhismof the 20th century. He was
influenced by Great Buddhist Scholar, Social Reformer Mahapandit
Rahul Sankrityayan and Dr. Ambedkar. He was born Harnam Das on January 5, 1905 in
Sohana Village of Ambala District in Punjab. He did B.A
from National College in Lahore. His travels took him to different parts
of World for promoting Buddhism just like his
mentor Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan. He devoted his full life to
serve Buddhism. He always wanted to have experience of traveling far
distances across many countries and discover new things. His aim was to
continue the tradition started by his inspirations.He contributed a lot
to Indian Travel Literature and Hindi. He
loved Hindi as a child loves his mother and supported it in many
ways. He worked for Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag, Rastrabhasha
Prachar Samiti, Vardha etc.

January 1909 Choudhary Sadhu Ram was born

Sadhu Ram later known as
Choudhary Sadhu Ram Mastere, a Punjabi Dalit leader was born to a well
known (Chamar) Shri Jawahar Mal of
Village Domeli in Kapurthala in January 1909.
As a child Sadhu Ram was admitted in the Khalasa High School Domeli. On
achieving adulthood Shri Sadhu Ram established his good business. From the very
childhood Sadhu Ram decided to work for the welfare of his community. The
condition of the Dalits in those days was no good and majority of them worked
as farm labour for Land holders at minimum wages. These poor Dalits were under
age-old debt of the local Banias
(Business men and money lenders). Poverty, illiteracy and hate were forced upon
them by manmade religious norms. So Sadhu Ram decided to dedicate his life to
remove these manmade miseries and free his brethren from the centuries old
slur. Later he prefixed his surname as “Choudhary”
meaning village headman, landlord, Local leader, Chieftain or foreman. He
worked with Mangoram Magowalia for establishment of Ad-Dharam in 1926. To put
this movement on the firm footing its aims and objectives were to establish a
separate religious identity for untouchables other than Hindus on the
Philosophy of Dalit Saints particularly Guru Ravidas. Discrimination on account
of castes was discarded saying it was manmade as God created every one equal.
Sikh way of worship was adopted declaring following of the Hindu religious
books likes Shastri, Spiritless, Prams and Vedas as sin. Jai Guru Dev was adopted as a wish for
greeting. Later he broke away from Ad Dharma and joined Dr.Ambedkar’s movement
SCF. Again Master Sadhu Ram broke away from SCF and joined Indian National
Congress in 1946. He met Babu Jagjivan Ram, who was a prominent Congress leader
with nearness to Mahatma Gandhi. Babu Jagjivan Ram and other Dalit leaders had
established in 1935, a pro-Congress Dalit organization named “All India
Depressed Classes League”. Master Sadhu Ram joined this organization and was
made convener of PEPSU State in 1954. Master Sadhu Ram was nominated by
Congress Party in 1952 for General Election to contest his first election from
Phagwara (G and SC) constituency for the PEPSU Legislative Assembly and got
elected. He was made Deputy Home Minister for PEPSU. This opened the destiny
doors for Master Sadhu Ram. In the second general elections held in 1957 he got
elected in Lok Sabha from Jallandhar (G and SC) constituency. He got elected in
1962, 1967 and1971 for the Lok Sabha from Phillaur (R) constituency. Master
Sadhu Ram continued serving in different capacities till he expired on 1st
August, 1975. He shall be long remembered for his good work for the welfare of
his people. Although he broke away from Dr. Ambedkar politically, but he
continued to keep his ideals as his guide.

1 -1- 1918 Madam Dani Shantabai was born

She was a Mahar Republician leader was born in a
hut on out skirts of Nasik in Maharashtra, on 1st January 1918 to
revered Shri Dhanaji Dani. Her father was a devotional religious singer. To
earn his livelihood he was engaged as the milk seller and owned twelve buffalows. Miss Dani Shantabai as a
child was brought in a poise religious atmosphere. She was teacher by profession
and passed her teacher’s training examination from Nasik. After passing her
matriculation from Pune she got the job of a teacher in Vinchur school of Nasik
district in Maharashtra. Since she was
engrossed in social work for the upliftment of her Dalit Samaj, so she resigned from her job and
became a whole timer social activist.
For devoting her full time for the Dalit uplift she did not marry. In Pune she came in contact with Dada sahib
Gaikwad a committed activist of the Scheduled Caste Federation (SCF). B.K.
Gaikwad took her to Dr. Ambedkar. She was so influenced by the work of both
these Dalit emancipators along with their team that she joined SFC on the day
of its formation at Nagpur on 18-19 July, 1942 by Dr. Ambedkar. Due to her dedication and commitment for the
upliftment of the Dalits, in 1943 she was elected as President of SCF Nasik
district unit. She was among the members of RPI
(The Republican Party of India)
when this party was launched on 3rd November, 1957after the death of Dr.
Ambedkar. Her mentor Dada Sahib B.K. Gaikwad was made president of the new
political party. She also participated in the second conference of SCF at
Kanpur in 1945 and got the unique honor of presiding over the SCF Women’s
conference held there at the same time. She accompanied P.N. Rajbhoj to Raipur
to bring Satnami Dalits to main stream of Dalit empowerment movement. But being
misunderstood both were arrested as agents of Nizam of Hyderabad. Both were
lodged in Jabalpur jail for three months. She was also jailed in Yarwada jail Pune in 1946 for leading a black flag
demonstration against Poona Pact( 1932).

In her long association with Dalit leaders,
Dr. Ambedkar, P.N. Rajbhoj, Madam N.Shivraj, Dada Sahib B.K Gaikwad, Mrs
Gitabai B.Gaikwad, Dada Sahib Roham, Sh. Lalingkar, Miss Londhe, she did a
remarkable work for the empowerment of the Dalits. She got converted to
Buddhism along with others in 1956 and propagated it in Maharashtra. She passed
away in 2001 at an age of 83 years.Her life was a saga of journey of struggle. She shall be long remembered for struggle to
achieve goals of Dalit empowerment.

In the eleven-year period between 1957 and
1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred
times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and
meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he
led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the
entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring
his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro
revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as
voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people
to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with
President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he
was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was
awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year byTimemagazine in 1963; and became not only
the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to
have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he
announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance
of the civil rights movement. 6 January 1929: -
First All Assam Depressed Classes Conference.

The conference was presided by Rai
Saheb Senapati Sonadhar Das. The conference raised the demand for separate electorate for the
Depressed Classes.

18-1-1934 Dr. Ambedkar delivered speech in
Gokhale Institute Pune which was later published in a book form titled
Ranade, Gandhi, Jinah.

6 -01-1939: Dr. Ambedkar addressed a big meeting of
agriculturists at Mahad (Raigad district of Maharashtra) where he impressed
upon the audience that the Congress Ministry had failed to mitigate their
woes[3].

He said that the Premier Kher (Pirme Minister
of Bombay) was simply a figure head; and he described the other Ministers of
the Provincial Government as dogs at the door of Sardar Patel. Referring to the
boastful statement of Sardar Patel, which he had made at a reception given to
Kher in Gujarat, to the effect that they welcomed Kher as a devotee of Gandhi
and not as Premier Kher, otherwise thet would have sent him back
unceremoniously,Dr. Ambedkarsaid that he would wreak vengeance on Patel
for this dire insult inflicted upon a Maharashtrian. If Patel dared insult him
in this manner, he added, he would thrash him. This was no a soliloquy; this
was a public speech! It was a natural outburst of anger sprung from a strong
mind which was consitenet with its contempt for the Congress leaders’ rude
mentality, and determinied to show its superiority. The above outburst is also
a sequale to the immediate past incidents. In September 1938, the Industrial
Disputes Bill was taken up by the Bombay Legislative Assembly. Dr. Ambedkar and
Jamnadas Mehta opposed the Bill tooth and nail. Ambedkar described Bill as bad,
bloody and bloodthirsty inasmuch as it made a strike under certain
circumstances illegal and affected the right of the labourer to strike.
Ambedkar stated that according to him strike was a civil wrong and not a crime,
and making a man serve against his will was nothing less than making him a
slave. He continued that the Bill ought to have been called ‘the Worker’ “Civil
Liberties Suspension Act”. Ambedkar then teased the Government by saying that
it was a Government, which claimed to be elected on labour votes; but it did
not stand by its election pledges. It was a democracy, he added, that was
enslaving the working class, and therefore it was a mockery of democracy. But
the Congress Ministry was determined to pass the Bill, which they ultimately
did despite massive rally at Kamgar Maidan (on 6 & 7 November) and strike
(on 7 November) were organized by Independent Labour Party. Also on 25
December, Swami Sahajanand, the Peasant leader from Uttar Pradesh, saw Dr.
Ambedkar at his residence in Bombay and had a talk with him about the labour
problem in Bombay and the agrarian reforms in general. He tried to persuade
Ambedkar to join the Congress to form a united front against imperialism.

6 -01-1940: Periyar met Dr.
Ambedkar in Mumbai

By 10.00 a.m,Periyararrived at Dadar station with his colleagues (Justice T.
A. V. Nathan, P. Balasubramaniam – Editor of Sunday observer, the mouth piece
of Justice Party, C. A. Annadurai, the General Secretary of Justice Party, T.
P. S. Ponnappan and C. Panjatcharam). He was given a reception and taken by a
decorated coach fitted with two white horses! Evening, he met Dr. Ambedkar and
latter took the former to his residence. Both discussed on various social and
political issues from 9.00 to 10.30 p.m.

30 J—01--1944: All India Schdeuled Caste Federation
Conference was held at Kanpur under the chairperson-ship of
N Shivraj.This
was the second such conference of the federation and it went on till the next
day i.e. 31 January 1944.

6 January 1949: Dr. Ambedkar wrote to Pune Collector to purchase land to set up a
University inTalegaon

ThePune
Mirrornewspaper
dated 4 August 2011reported:

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’sdream of setting up a university in Talegaon
remains unfulfilled to this day. Inspired by the universities of Nalanda and
Takshila, Dr, Ambedkar had bought 87 acres of land and a bungalow at Talegaon
and Wadgaon in Pune district of Maharashtra. Today, all that remains of the
dream is one plot of land and theVishwaratnaDr
Babasaheb AmbedkarSmarak Samitiis struggling to find enough land to build a
memorial.

“Ambedkar held meetings with Sant Gadge Baba and
Acharya P K Atre in Talegaon. Ambedkar first purchased 65 acres of land at
Harneshwar Tekdi at a price of Rs 16,000 and later, he purchased 22 acres at
Wadgaon.”

26-1-1950
Constitution of Free India came into force, granting equality before Law

Behan Mayawati, a four-time
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, is chief of Bahujan Samaj Party which is, at
present, main opposition party in the Assembly of Uttar Pradesh.She is leading BSP in
the UP Vidhan Sabha elections scheduled
to be held in Febuary-March in 2017.

1-1-1979 Mandal Commission was formed-

TheMandal Commissionwas established inIndia1-1-1979
by theJanata Partygovernment under Prime
Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or
educationally backward."It
wasconstituted as per the mandate under article 340( Appointment of
a commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes in India every
10 years) for the purpose of Articles 15( Prohibition of Discrimination on
grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth) and 16( Equality of
opportunity in public employment).It was headed byIndian parliamentarianB.P. Mandalto consider the
question of seat reservations and quotas for people to redress castediscrimination, and used eleven
social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness. In
1980, the commission's report affirmed theaffirmative actionpractice under Indian
law whereby members of backward castes though they were also uppercast (known
asOther Backward Classes(OBC),Scheduled Castes(SC) andScheduled Tribes(ST)) were given
exclusive access to a certain portion of government Jobs and slots in public
universities, and recommended changes to thesequotas, increasing them by 27% to
50%.Mobilization on caste lines
had followed the political empowerment of ordinary citizens by the constitution
of free India that allowed common people to politically assert themselves
through the right to vote.The
commission estimated that 54% of the total population (excluding SCs and STs),
belonging to 3,743 different castes and communities, were ‘backward’The number of backward castes in
Central list of OBCs has now increased to 5,013 (without the figures for most
of the Union Territories) in 2006 as perNational
Commission for Backward Classes.

Mr. Kanshi Ram, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo
said thatsocial transformation and
ecomonic emancipation of Dalits could only be possible through power.
Social justice alone was not required for Dalits. They could survive only if
they shared power in the country, He said themain aim of his life was social
and economic reforms of Dalits. He said that he had succeeded
in uniting the Dalits and that was why a Dalit lady, Ms. Mayawati, became the
Chief Minister of UP the largest state in the country. He said he would now
concentrate on making a person from Gujjar community a Chief Minister of
Rajasthan and an Adivasi a Chief Minister of Punjab. Mr. Romesh Dogra, Congress
MLA from Dasuya, Mr. Naresh Thakur, former Deputy Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan
Sabha and Mr. Ram Rattan, general secretary, District Congress Committee,
Hoshiarpur shared also the dias with the BSP

30
January 2000: Press release by Manyawar Kanshi Ram on the review of
constitution.

The press release
was on the backdrop of the Warning given by the President of India (K R
Narayananan) to the Nation and Government while speaking in the Central Hall of
Parliament on 27 January 2000, the 50 year of framing of IndianConstitution.
He had advised the Government of India not to go in for a review of the
Constitution, but to study and analyse the way the successive Governments were
working to implement the Constitution and various provisions there in. The
Government of India was headed by A B Vajpayee (Bhartiya Janta Party). The
press release by Manyawar Kanshi Ram (Bahujan Samaj Party) is as follows:“I
welcome the warning sounded by the President about the Government’s move to
Review theConstitution. It is strange that instead of clearly
identifying the areas where Review or Amendment is needed, the Government is
keeping everything under the cloak of secrecy, by proposing a Review of the
whole Constitution.

The Constitution
of India as drafted byDr
Bhimrao Ambedkar,
although not fully accepted still, reflected the aspirations and hopes of the
vast millions, who were made to live degraded sub human lives for
centuries. As a result of the change in the Political and Social
Scenario brought by the Constitution, the shackles of the old social system
have weakened, and now there is tremendous awareness and awakening in the
Bahujan Samaj. In fact,the political instability which has been witnessed in the last few years
is the result of social mobility and dynamism of the Weaker Sections which has
been generated by the constitutional framework. The political
stability of yester years, was the result of not strong popular base of the
political parties, but the strict political control exercised by the socially
dominant groups over the Bahujan Samaj.

6 January 2010: Public interest litigation
from the All India Christian Federation (AICF) was filed with the
Supreme Court of India seeking reservations for all Dalits irrespective of
their religious faith.

The PIL (WP Civil # 579/2009) sought reservation
for converted Dalits of all faiths on the same footing as extended to Scheduled
Castes following Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K. G.
Balakrishnan and Justice B. S. Chauhan issued a notice to the Ministry of Social
Justice and Ministry of Minority Affairs for its response on the implementation
of the recommendation of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic
Minorities (NCRLM) headed by former Chief Justice of India Rangnath Misra.

Senior advocate K. K. Venugopal and D.
Vidyanandam submitted the recent statement by Minority Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid that the report of NCRLM was not made public and there was a
difference between the manifesto of Congress party and the recommendation by
the Commission was an attempt to defeat the claims of converts.

Mr. Venugopal said the Centre had referred
the NCRLM report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes which also
supported the reported recommendation for 15 per cent (10 per cent for Muslims
and 5 per cent for others) reservation without disturbing 50 per cent ceiling
set by the Supreme Court.

The PIL said paragraph three of the
Presidential order of 1950 under Article 341 of the Constitution, which
empowers the President to specify Scheduled Castes, was coming in the way of
extending the benefits of reservation to Dalit converts and was upheld by the
NCRLM’s seven-member committee. It sought striking down of paragraph 3 of the
Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 on the grounds that it is ultra
vires of the Constitution. The NCRLM has prepared its report after
visiting various states and among the terms of reference was to examine whether
the Scheduled Caste converts suffer from social disabilities like
untouchability even after embracing Christianity. The Ranganath Mishra
Commission earlier declared that non-inclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims
in the SC ambit was a discrimination based on religion and goes against the
Constitution of India. After a brief hearing, the Bench tagged the petition
with other PILs on the issue which has been pending since 2004.The Centre had
in January 2008 told the apex court that it would study the report of Misra
commission which examined the issue of granting Scheduled Caste status to Dalit
Christians for extending benefits of reservation to them.

The NGO had also submitted that it was the
right time that the court should strike down the order requiring all Dalits to
belong to a particular religion if they were to avail the SC reservation
benefits as it goes beyond the mandate of Article 341(1) and violates the
fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

All India United Christians Movement for
Equal Rights, had said the Congress Government had in 1996 brought a Bill in
Lok Sabha to amend para three of the “Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order
1950” for extending reservation benefits to Dalit Christians. There are about
20 million dalit Christians.

The PIL had claimed social standings ofDalitseven after converting to Christianity has not
changed and they have to face discrimination in churches also.

The demand for granting Scheduled Castes
status to the Dalit Christians has been opposed in several quarters, including
the SC/ST Commission which contended that they cannot enjoy two rights – that
is of minority and SCs.

Citing a 2005 ruling of the apex court, in
which it was said even if a tribal converted to Christianity, he or she could
still avail reservation benefits as his/her status as ST remained unchanged,
PIL had said the same law should be applicable toDalitsafter their conversion.

[4]K V Ramakrishna Rao, The Historic Meeting of
Ambedkar, Jinnah and Periyar, A paper presented during the 21st session of
South Indian History Congress held at Madurai Kamaraj University from 18 to 20
January 2001 and published in the proceedings,pp.128-136